The U.S. flag flies beneath another flag last week at an Enbridge contractor site. It was this way on Veterans Day, too. / Beth Duman

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Critics of Enbridge Energy are blasting the company for allowing an American flag to be flown improperly at a staging area for work on its massive pipeline project across Michigan, calling it an example of arrogance made more insulting because it happened on Veterans Day.

In an image supplied to the Free Press, the flag can be seen flying underneath another flag near Whitmore Lake Road in Livingston County on Friday, a violation of flag etiquette requiring the American flag to be in the top position.

Beth Duman, a dog trainer living in Oceola Township whose property is affected by the project, said she took the photo Friday, and the flags were in the same position Sunday, which was Veterans Day.

A spokesman for the Enbridge contractor said the men responsible could face some form of discipline; however, the company’s investigation has not yet been completed.

Cameron Klein, corporate safety director for Precision Pipeline of Eau Claire, Wis., said the men, who are brothers, are Army veterans from Pennsylvania. They flew a Penn State flag above the American flag and had forgotten to take it down, he said, noting that the flag was removed late Sunday or early Monday.

“The gentlemen did not realize that you don’t put anything above the American flag,” Klein said. “I know the two gentlemen. They did not mean disrespect; they just made a bad decision.”

Klein said the men, who work in the warehouse at the job site, have worked for Precision for seven or eight months and in Michigan for about four months.

"We do apologize if anyone was offended by that," Enbridge spokesman Jason Manshum said, noting that the company's contractors are expected to operate under Enbridge's corporate values of integrity and respect. He said he's not sure why the American flag was flown incorrectly.

Enbridge's 285-mile pipeline project crosses Livingston, Oakland and Macomb counties on its way to Ontario. The pipeline project is billed as a replacement for Line 6B, which ruptured near Marshall in 2010, possibly spilling more than a million gallons of tar sands oil into a Kalamazoo River tributary. Enbridge said it hopes to complete the new pipeline, which travels from Indiana to Sarnia, Ontario, by 2013, but the company has met resistance from numerous landowners.

"To me, it was the height of arrogance that these people could move into our community and think that their company tops our country," Duman said.

Manshum said the company respects Veterans Day and has many veterans on its staff in the U.S. Enbridge is based in Canada.